Featured Artist: Evan Burnett, Portland OR

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Evan giving a demonstration during the 2022 Open Studios

In 2008 Evan started his own glass design and production company, Local Art Glass LLC. In addition to having a great team of six artisans helping him make his work, Local Art Glass is also Portland, Oregonโ€™s only public glassblowing studio. It is located upstairs in an intriguing building called the Pickle Factory.

Evanโ€™s studio practice is divided between two disciplines – design and fine art. On the design side Evan and his team create decorative and functional items for the home and office, including drinkware, vases, urns, bowls, and ornaments.  In 2020, Local Art Glass became the top seller of hand-blown ornaments on Etsy.com, making them one of the top producers of high-quality hand-blown ornaments in the country.

Evanโ€™s fine art practice is centered on themes of humor, absurdism, and surrealism, often with mid-century modern and psychedelic qualities. Subjects have included hotdogs, glitter chickens, pickle spaceships, and plates decorated with images of Steve Buscemi. Burnette traces much of his current aesthetic and interests back to childrenโ€™s television of the mid 1980โ€™s, primarily Pee-Weeโ€™s Playhouse, and Jim Hensonโ€™s The Muppet Show.

In 2023, an opportunity arose when the suite next door to Local Art Glassโ€™s studio was vacated. Seizing the opportunity, Evan decided to expand the studio, moving the hotshop to the adjoining suite, making Local Art Glassโ€™s footprint now just under 4,000 square feet. With the new added space, LAG is now able to offer glassblowing classes on a regular basis. Casting, fusing, and other specialized glass technique classes, featuring visiting artists, will be added to LAG’s public offerings in the near future.

You can see more of his work on the Portland area Open Studios Tour September 30 – October 1.

Featured Artist: Kathy Johnson, Burien WA

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Kathy Johnson just celebrated 40 years of being part-owner of PNW Glass Guild sponsor Glass Expressions in Burien, WA, just south of Seattle. She started making glass beads in 1991. Her custom bead-portraits of horses combine her love of horses with her eye for detail and mastery of bead-making. Lately she has been combining fused glass with welding.

When she’s not out sailing she does expert stained glass repairs, plays with glass using all sorts of methods, and often wins glass cutting contests. She’s also a great teacher. You can see her in action in her Glass Classroom videos on YouTube or by taking a class in person.

If you take the Guild-sponsored GlassAndDecor.com studio tour in north Seattle on October 14-15 stop by site #3 to see and talk to her about her work.

Featured Artist: Bridget Culligan, Seattle

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Who am I? I am a glass artist.

What drives me? Passion. Lifelong learning. No matter what you think you know, glass is in charge and continues to engage, challenge, and inspire me. From the first time I saw a hand-blown vessel, I was hooked on the liveliness of the color. I eat up the challenge. I am a person who wants to win and when an opportunity arises I am likely to say, โ€œWell, Iโ€™ve never done that before, but YES, I can do itโ€, and then I find a way.

When working out a custom design I start with the intention of communicating an emotion with such power and clarity that my client can actually feel the same thing. This is miraculous! We can never be sure of course if it is the SAME feeling, but that is my goal.

How can I grow as an artist? I grow my skills through community. I have found my tribe and we geek out about all things stained glass. My community is my greatest resource. I am an apprentice learning an ancient craft from master craftsmen. From my first teacher who has been โ€œdoing stuffโ€ for 40+ years to the wonder of watching Jim at Fremont Antique Glass, to attending conferences with SGAA [Stained Glass Association of America] and GAS [Glass Art Society], to collecting a library of books, I want to know it deeply. I am grateful to others who have been so generous with me regarding their time, experience and resources. Without them I donโ€™t exist.

Who am I? A woman, an elder, and an explorer who is filled with curiosity and who is filling my basket with wisdom. I am a glass artist, one among a chosen, a lucky few (like you) and arenโ€™t we blessed!

Bridget Culligan

Featured Artists:

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Jane Godfrey and Sondra Radcliffe, Portland

Jane Godfrey and Sondra Radcliffe,
Jane is a former president of the Oregon Glass Guild.

We established Ambiente Art Glass almost 50 years ago. This is hard to believe because it seems like yesterday that we fell in love with glass. Our journey began in Cleveland Ohio where we built a solid business, owned 2 galleries, and did considerable commission work. We specialize in unique hand crafted fused and stained glass, and always find the glass process to be totally inspiring. It is an ever-evolving art form that invites new learning on a daily basis. We love it.

Fourteen years ago, after much thought, we left our beloved Cleveland life to move our well-established glass studio to Portland, Oregon to be closer to family and grandchildren. This move has been both personally and artistically challenging and rewarding as we have ventured out of our comfort zone to begin again. We still have deep roots and artistic ties to Cleveland but have also been enriched and nurtured by our family and the expansive Northwest.

In our work we are inspired by the beauty and the changing moods of the natural environment. All the arts, especially music, dance, poetry and our own photography, impact our creativity. The angst, depth, joys and blessings of life experiences also find expression in our work. We are moved by the regenerative and meditative quality of the creative process and the magical illumination of glass as it changes with the shifting light of each day and season.

As artists we are known for our sensitive use of color and texture, for fluid unusual designs, and excellent craftsmanship. During different periods of our lives we have maintained parallel careers; Sondra as an expressive arts therapist, and Jane as a psychotherapist. This has deepened our own artistic creativity and expanded our understanding of the healing potential of glass and the transforming effects of the art process itself.

This piece is 6 ft tall

[both in their 80s, they are currently working on two 120″x30″ stained glass panels for a client in Idaho]

Featured Artist: Shawna Hovey

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Portland, Oregon

I started creating with glass in November ’08, after a bout with Breast Cancer, followed by Heart Failure. I realized that I needed to jump off the hamster wheel of my toxic and stressful life, into a life where I could live and grow into my best life. It was then, on a whim, that I turned into our neighborhood glass shop to inquire about taking a glass class. I took one abbreviated introduction class. Since then, glass has flowed from my soul, evolving into what it is todayโ€ฆ scenic mountain, ocean and sculpted floral jewelry, as well as other wearable art. With that one class, I was on my way to Blissโ€ฆCreating with glass lit a fire that still burns brightly.

In fact, if I get too far away from my glass, my heart starts to falter.I am a glass fuser, creating primarily with dichro. I love its brilliance and how it inspires me to create. I don’t know what I’m going to create when I start. I get to watch what materializes, What I hear from so many is that my creations are like no other dichro work they’ve seen. I believe this is due to my shaping techniques, and finite attention to detailsโ€ฆ Details take time and patience, which I think many are not equipped with

You can make dichro sing, glow or scream with brilliant color; but,also, have it fall flat (lack luster) depending on the detailing of your cold work. Knowing when to stop is key.For me, it’s when the involuntary smile shows up on my face.What do I find most challenging with glass? The scariest, was having to drill my first hole into glass! But once I mastered that, it opened up a whole new world for me. That’s when I started sculpting glass into jewelry. I felt fearless! But, I had to pledge to myself, to never be devastated over broken piecesโ€ฆ ‘You can always make earrings’.

I have been a member of the Glass Guild in the past, and held office briefly. But, due to health reasons, I wasn’t able to continue. I don’t currently teach classes. But I do see it in my future if the opportunity arises. I’ve participated in previous Guild Shows. Though, this year, it dawned one morning when I arrived, looking around and breathing it all inโ€ฆ I have found my people! Generally, I’m an introvert, but being with ‘like’ beings, and creativity that abounds, I am my best self. There is nothing better than when creative minds collide! Exhilaratingโ€ฆBeing involved with the Guild, it’s the Artists, creativity, and learning that I enjoy most.

Featured Artist: Janet Van Fleet

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Battle Ground, Washington

I am a retired teacher. Somewhere in the midst of teaching, I fell in love with glass. Before teaching, oil painting was my passion. That dwindled during my teaching years. With glass, I looked forward to coming home after a challenging day at school to take a piece of glass out of the kiln and see my creation magically transformed into a piece of beautiful light. That joy and love of creating has continued and now 20+ years later Iโ€™m enjoying creating as my primary job while retired.

With my oil painting and drawing experience, I naturally gravitated toward painting with glass. While I havenโ€™t officially taught glass classes, I have shared my knowledge with others in my studio. And who knows, teaching might be the next step.

I believe glass is the ultimate medium in artโ€ฆthe light of our worldโ€ฆconnecting heaven and earth. The joy of seeing glass transform into something new and even more beautiful is indescribable. The challenge is letting go of expectations and allowing the glass to transform. Iโ€™m the tool that manipulates it, but ultimately, glass creates the results.

Featured Artist: Mitzi Kugler, West Linn OR

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I believe that being a member of a guild you get out as much as you put in. You learn through active participation. Our guild has been through many changes, but it is still strong and will continue to morph through new members and new ideas always making us grow. You also gain friendship and comradery by having a โ€˜likeโ€™ interest plus someone to help you out when you canโ€™t figure it out yourself.

Pacific Northwest Glass Guild โ€“ member since 2008
Positions held in guild: Past president; President; Open Studio Coordinator; Coordinator of Annual Meeting; Board member, Volunteer Coordinator for Gathering of the Guilds

Iโ€™m always changing and continue to transform my art by gaining new skills and honing already acquired ones. Now is a new adventure for me as I move from a glass artist to a multi-medium artist. I will still fuse and lampwork glass, but it will be reduced while my metal work will intertwine and becoming one with my glass. Iโ€™m excited for my new adventure because I love integrating the two mediums together. See more of Mitzi’s work in the Member’s Gallery or at her store https://mitzikart.com/store

Featured Artist: Rosalind Cooper, Beaverton, Oregon

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My love of glass began when I was age 17 in Paris. It was a sunny day as I entered Notre-Dame cathedral. Music was reverberating off the sanctuary columns from the 8000piece pipe organ as I first gazed upon one of the Rose windows. I was in love. The play of light was mesmerizing as I stood there for several minutes in awe.
Around 1990 I took my first stained glass class at Tualatin Hills Parks and Rec in Beaverton Oregon. One of my favorite types of glass to use was made by Kokomo, the texture and patterns were interesting to create with. One of my early projects was a large framed pane of a wicker basket with flowers that I took on the train with me to Colorado to give to a friend for her new house and she ended up designing her home color scheme from the colors I used on that piece. Our 3 front windows are adorned with framed stained glass large panes of an old barn, lighthouse and a covered bridge. For my husbandโ€™s 45th birthday I made a large framed bubble juke box with 45 on it.

Roz shows off her three beautiful versions of a landscape that was part of our glass guild competition last summer.

In 2004 I was laid off my job of over 13 years as a flexible benefits administrator for a division of Blue Cross of Oregon as they prepared to close that facility. With the severance I received, I pursued learning fused glass. Once I began fused glass, I pretty much gave up stained glass although I have used some of the patterns. I took a couple of classes on fused glass at Roseโ€™s Glassworks and purchased a 20 inch kiln and a bead kiln at Cline Glass. Since that time I have participated in a variety of learning opportunities,including ones on torch-work and sandblasting, classes at Bullseye Glass as well as being guided by wonderful teachers such as Ann Cavanaugh, Fred Buxton and Serena Smith. At this time I donโ€™t teach classes, but I have play dates teaching my friends and family using various techniques and inspiring them with some possibilities of glass.

I create many items that include jewelry, coasters, garden art, bowls and landscape panels. I have created a double curve from a painting my daughter did that I call NW Sky five times. Some of the reeds on Heron at Sunrise were enabled by methods I learned on a zoom PNWGG Fossil Vitria play day with Karen Seymour. I very much enjoy making vases,especially when using a large 10 inch mold, it is always a challenge to get the piece centered so it will drape well. Techniques that I have used for vases include drop dots of color,dancing flowers using different methods for the flowers, lace overlay, crackle and frit stretch. There was a segment on my vases on the television program Garden Time that aired on May 25, 2019. https://youtu.be/OLltFlQIA4Y I also enjoy making landscape skies created using my own technique, I love vibrant skies so much I named by business after them!

Lacey fused glass reactive vase.

My most recently completed project was making two more depictions of the photo I created for the PNWGG contest in August last year. I fired 103 samples of frit blends to get the colors accurate for the photo that I was creating from. Some future projects I am working on include making flowers of various sizes and to create landscapes from photos taken by a couple of photographer friends.

Considering that I have not participated in a live show since Covid-19, I have added over 125 items to my Etsy site, www.vibrantsky.etsy.com. I do however anticipate having a booth at Gathering of the Guilds this year at the end of April. I have participated in the Gathering of the Guilds 12 times from participating in the guild group booth to a full 10โ€™x10โ€™booth plus I have always displayed a piece in the pavilion. I view it as a glass convention with show and tell. The first few years I think we had 60 glass participants !

Roz did this stained glass juke box design with a 45 on it for her husband’s 45th birthday!

A few years ago I was co-vice president of what at the time was the Oregon Glass Guild. When I first joined the guild in 2005, I was impressed by how cooperative people were about sharing and passing on the knowledge they had of glass techniques and methods. Since that time I have watched and learned from my fellow artists and I cheer on their growth and accomplishments.

Featured Artist: Athena Hornsby, concrete, Washington

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My love of art was born at a young age due to necessity and boredom. I made mud pies and macaroni mosaic and potholders out of old socks. Yes, old socks. Imagine taking bread from the oven with old socks and yes, we made bread too. Before bread became artisan, it was just bread. When I was in the seventh grade an art teacher inspired me and, though I never pursued anything at the time, the seed was planted. I went through a phase in life called โ€˜making a livingโ€™ and then finally gave that up and just chose art. I have dabbled with flowers, fabric, beads and baking and finally settled on glass as my choice for perfection.

Basically, I am self-taught but I love to learn and continue to take classes in stained glass, mosaic and glass fusing. I have studied under international masters of contemporary mosaic such as Martin Cheek and Christine Stewart. Other classes and workshops are done locally. I, myself, am a teacher of stained glass, mosaic and fusing. Sharing the love of glass inspires me as well, making me continually reach for new ideas and techniques.

Painted and fused…..Greece.



This was part of a contest at her local library, which Athena won and now this piece hangs in the library and the image is on all of the library cards.

I personally invite any guild members traveling the scenic the North Cascades Highway (gateway to North Cascades National Park) to please stop for a visit. Iโ€™m open Friday through Tuesday all year (unless Iโ€™m traveling) 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. https://www.facebook.com/northwestgardenbling

Athena’s lovely glass on glass mosaics.
Athena’s very first lamp! Wow!
Athena’s latest lamp…..pretty cute.

I am a member, or have been, of these great organizations: The Association of Stained Glass Lamp Artists, Arts Council of Sedro Woolley, Pacific Northwest Glass Guild and Skagit Artists Together.

Featured Artist: Janiene Fitzpatrick, Shoreline WA

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I have always loved rainbow colored and ordered glass โ€” I am a RAINBOWAHOLIC. I also happen to be OBSESSED with dichroic glass jewelry, along with anything diamond-like and sparkly.

It really bothers me that most rainbow pieces on the market lack a good purple. After I had collected about 10 pieces from a local artisan I asked him to try to add purple to a tray of rainbow style pendants. I offered to buy the whole finished tray. He put it off for a long time because he busy making things for other clients. During that waiting time, I decided that it was unlikely that I was the only person wanting complete rainbows in my jewelry and art glass. I felt I wanted to try to fill some of that void with my design eye and art style so I started making glass pendants with all 7 rainbow colors. Dichroic glass became my go-to medium. I tend to make hidden channels in my pendants to allow a clasp to freely float all the way through. Over the last 8 years I have branched out into other things.

I really like thinking through the layers to complete a piece. Sometimes I have a solution for an addition to my project figured out in my head that makes an item more useful. I recently added battery operated light mounts and a hanging point to the back of a Barn Star mold, to make it be a lighted Christmas tree topper or a focal point in a wreath. Because of my channel work with pendants, I had good solutions for these additions already worked out.

My most ambitious project lately was 6 Fantasy Fairy Flowers in 6 weeks in 18 kiln loads. Thankfully, I had a very detailed tutorial and it all went smoothly. A true labor of love. I easily named each one of them and wasn’t sure I wanted to let them go to new homes.

Recently I’ve started making fish by building up frit in a slumping mold. From side spots, to the blush of color, to the surface spots again. It can be viewed from both sides in a display, or used as a sushi plate. They take about 3 hours and 15 layers to create and stabilize. I want to explore more of this technique.

I joined the guild to get experience in the Gathering of the Guilds at the Oregon Convention Center. I also like getting the “classifeds” to find people selling off their 96coe glass, supplies & equipment. Pre-pandemic I was a member of my local almost-monthly glass potluck. I liked being able to ask experienced artists about entering the small local shows, and how I could progress to round out my offerings. I also liked the live critique of my items, as it was more authentic than online.

But what I really enjoy most is being part of the glass community and seeing what everyone is making at all skill levels. Not just the finished for sale items, but the โ€œhey I tried this and I kinda like itโ€. Seeing other people’s experimentation, including flops, sometimes helps me think about my own projects in a new way. It also highlights ideas that I had thought about and now definitely don’t need to try.

See more of her work at http://oldpandorasboxcreations.com

Featured Artist Mari Aoki Knight, Salem, Oregon

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I was born and raised in Kamakura, the ancient capital of Japan. Located just south of Tokyo on the Pacific, Kamakura has been a popular home to artists and authors for more than a century. Because my parents were artists โ€” my father was a painter and my mother was a fashion designer and a potter โ€” I was always surrounded by visual art. Growing up in an artistic and creative household fostered my artistic feeling and sense of color. After a long search for the perfect medium to express my own, I encountered and fell in love with the glass art formed in kiln โ€” fused glass โ€” and developed my own style in jewelry as Wearable Glass Art. After moving to Florida in the 1990s, I took various workshops at a leading art center near my home. Over the course of fifteen years, I got to know the wonderful and magical traits of glass and am still very much in love with it.

Mari Aoki Knight
Fused glass necklace : Summer Bride

About My Glass Jewelry โ€” Wearable Glass Art
My designs are often inspired by glass itself. I have been always fascinated by the interplay of glass with light, and the colors that their fusion creates. The harmony produced by layering diverse pieces of multicolored glass is an extraordinary creation. Light passing through glass emits distinctive and fanciful qualities that transform colors in magical ways. The blending of my jewelry with light yields an infinite array of colors.
My jewelry is based on kiln glass, combining both regular and dichroic glass. I also create original glass by painting it with distinctive colors, leading to nuance and subtlety, including organic colors found in nature. My signature jewelry is based on flower blossoms. I cut glass petals one by one, building a blossom using fiber paper to create 3D forms, with as many as five layers. I also incorporate โ€œpure silver foilโ€ into my glass, which induces reactions giving rise to unexpected patterns. Silver reacts to certain minerals in glass, resulting in unique and organic designs. My inspirations come from the colors and forms of nature โ€“ leaves in the Fall, withering Winter flora, flowers in Spring, and the brilliant colors of Summer.

Fused Glass and Metal: Bracelet and Necklace
Fused Glass: Spring Has Come Necklace

The most challenging phase of my art is the trial-and-error of creating multicolored jewelry in manifold layers. At the same time, such experimenting can result in unexpected creations of truly novel light and color. I was delighted to join the PNW Glass Guild this past year. I look forward to meeting and learning from the many talented artists who make this amazing community their artistic home.

one of several bright floral pieces
One of Mari’s newest — Three Circle necklace. The three circle glass pieces themselves depict the different phases of the moon, with the silvery pattern in the middle depicting clouds over the moon. Japanese culture places special appreciation on each phase of the moon.

See more of her work at https://www.mari-wearableglassart.com/

Featured Artist Candace Pratt

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Portland, Oregon

After moving to Portland in the mid 80โ€™s and working in the food industry until 1997, I began a second career in commission architectural glass in 2000 at the encouragement of an interior designer. I had never worked with glass, so after 3 years of classes and hundreds of samples and experiments, I began manufacturing glass tile, vessel sinks, and lighting for several designers.

https://www.icingsglass.com/

The recession of 2008-2011 and the recent pandemic were difficult times for most all of us in the arts, but we persisted. I assembled an incredible team over the 20 years, including a waterjet engineer, metal artist, lighting engineer, sand-carver and glass polisher. We are all local independent artisans, and it has been the most enjoyable part of architectural glass work. During these two decades I was also creating Navajo-style tapestry works of art. These two art forms were worlds apart from one another until recently when, for the first time, my love for glass and my passion for fiber art were intertwined.

At a Pilchuck Glass School residency, I was given permission to breath, reflect, fail, and observe. It was the greatest artistic gift even given to me, and it changed my life immeasurable. From that opportunity came clarity, and slowly I have woven a tale that encompasses my desire to speak to social justice issues through mixed media visual arts.The series โ€˜Universal Vesselsโ€™ materialized as I imagined merging fiber and glass to represent the bringing together of dissimilar cultures. The baskets and vessels of the series are created with kilnformed glass for the structuresโ€™ bases and spokes, while the weft binds the glass spokes with fiber including reed, yarn, beads, and wire.

https://candaceprattfineart.com/

I have developed three basketry techniques over the past 2 years – each more technical, yet more representative of indigenous works. Initially, the baskets and vessels created in 2020 examined the technology and materials needed to combine the two media. In a multi-step process, a flat glass disk is fused into a round or oval shape. Waterjet-cutting creates the vessel spokes; the number, diameter and length of each spoke is determined by the weaving pattern chosen for the weft. A final firing follows allowing the disk to slump into the shape of the ceramic or stainless-steel mold. Ex. Oregon Bounty. Having made only a few baskets prior to this new body of work, learning traditional basket weaving techniques has been an exhilarating undertaking. Adapting these materials and processes to bring out my contemporary style was freeing and invigorating.

In the next generation of vessels, I focused on achieving a more traditional basket shape โ€“ one with a smaller rim diameter than vessel body. New molds and cutting techniques were developed for the glass, while utilizing traditional basketry weft. An example of this technique is from 2021 All are Welcome.

My 2022 series titled Native Grasses is an adaptation of the traditional coiled grass baskets. To represent the grass, I have chosen stringer, which are bundled and shaped in a kiln-forming technique. Waxed linen is used to twine the grass-like bundles of glass together. I very much enjoy the comradery, inspiration, and energy of our PNWGG and hope our guild remains an ever-strong group of visual artists.

See more of Candace’s work at her Members’ Gallery page.

Featured Artist Charles Friedman

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Seattle, Washington

As a native Northwesterner I’ve been exposed to all manner of sea life. This influenced my signature series of โ€œShilshole Seashells from the Salish Seaโ€ – fanciful marine shapes of both bright and subtle colors. No two are exactly alike. These shells are time-consuming and difficult to make, requiring a team of two or five highly trained people. The body part of the shell is blown first, in the off-hand style, with five or more layers of colored and clear glass added, then cut open while hot, and sculpted into shape. It is then embellished with additional bits of hot, worked glass.

All my life I have been into โ€œShow and Tellโ€ and being a thing-maker. I invented a widely used deadman switch to control the torches used by blowers and lampworkers and sell them on my website. I will have them at my studio on the Glass And Decor studio tour in Seattle October 15-16 if you do torchwork and want to try one
http://www.friedmanglassworks.com/homepage/tools

I have done lots of Street Fairs, Art Galleries, Museums, Public Exhibitions – State and International Festivals, showing and telling visitors about glass. In 2009 the โ€œShilshole Seashell Museumโ€ (An Ersatz Art Installation for the truly curious and the magpie in all of us) was opened to the public and a Museum Catalog was printed. It has been updated with additional items and continuing stories of the seashells and their travels. If you buy one of the “exhibit cases” you get a free copy. This new version of the Seashell museum will be at the Blowing Sands studio and gallery in Seattle throughout October and November.

Because of health issues, I’m not currently blowing glass but I have a large inventory. You can see me at my studio on the Glass And Decor studio tour in Seattle October 15-16 (# 5 on tour map), and the Seashell museum at Blowing Sands (site #4).

Watch Charles blow a seashell

See more of Charles’ work on his Members’ Gallery page.

Featured Artists Rose and Gerald McBride

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Turner, Oregon

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Rose and Gerald McBride
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Hello and happy summer to everyone in the Guild from us in our little piece of heaven, our property neighboring the Willamette Valley Vineyards winery in Turner, Oregon. Here we have our two studios, our home and a small Christmas tree farm that keep us busy.

When we retired, Gerald in late 2016 and Rose in spring of 2017, we made plans to just travel abroad and see as much of the world and as many cultures as possible and for two years we did just that! As we both love history and art, we toured dozens and dozens of museums and churches marveling at beautiful paintings and amazing glass artistry. It was later that set our imaginations ablaze with ideas we wanted to capture and create in glass. One small issue, we hadn’t a clue where to start.

In 2018, in between trips, I looked up a stained glass artist friend whom I had not seen for 20 years, asking her if she would teach me the basics of stained glass and mentor me in my efforts. Gerald purpose built me a great little studio for creating stained glass, painting and sculpting. My friend, Claudette, did teach me the basics and continues to mentor me on my glass journey.

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Rose’s stained glass work.
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Once I was up and running, Gerald was hot to pursue his own passion to work with fusing and slumping glass. To begin that journey we both signed up to make our own sheets of glass at Bullseue and while there we signed ourselves up for a 3-day Tim Carey workshop Bullseye was offering in late Spring of 2019. We were, quite frankly, in way over our heads during that advanced glass workshop, but we loved everything we were being shown and found we were actually creating what we set out to make. The workshop cemented our mutual desires to create glass art in earnest.

An amazing part of the workshop experience is meeting other artists. It was our lucky day to meet and get to know Charlene Fort. She immediately recognized two things about usโ€ฆ..our desire to make glass art and our true need to educate ourselves further to be successful at it. She encouraged us to join the Oregon Glass Guild to get to know other glass artists who, she assured us, freely shared ideas and techniques and could point us to other learning avenues.

Gerald left the Bullseye workshop and immediately began building his warm glass studio, completing it in late 2019.

If there is a silver lining to COVID-19, it is that for two years, along with everyone else, we traveled nowhere. Instead, we enjoyed the gift of lots of time to experiment, design and bring to life glass art creations in two mediums – stained glass and fused glass. Our artworks are sold by Gallery at Ten Oaks in McMinnville, River Gallery in Independence and by the Halicuna Bay Mall in Salem. This year we also enjoyed participating in the Gathering of the Guilds in Portland.
We have learned so much from guild members, this past year especially, and we both thank each person who has helped us to improve our art by teaching us new ways to play with glass.

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Gerald’s fused glass work
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Gerald with Charlene Fort
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Rose’s stained glass
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Gerald’s fused glass pieces
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Featured Artists Pam and Sky Archuleta

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Sua Lana Glass Art in Scappoose, Oregon

Hello glass friends! Iโ€™m Pam Archuleta, and my husband, Sky, and I are Sua Lana Glass Art in Scappoose, Oregon. Sua Lana (pronounced โ€˜Shwa Lanaโ€™) is a Basque term that means โ€˜created by hand with fire.โ€™

Our business was borne from our love of art and a fascination with glass. I began my journey in glass some 15+ years ago when I was inspired to take classes in glassblowing. At the time, I truly didnโ€™t realize there were so many ways of working with glass, and my experience with glassblowing quickly blossomed to include torch work and fusing in various ways. The process that has proven most interesting in my exploration so far is pate de verre because itโ€™s a complex process that taught me many things about glass and its properties, and gave me an opportunity to learn how to make many different types of molds.

I began making pate de verre pieces after seeing a small bowl at the Bullseye Resource Center that captured my imagination. Bullseye was offering classes at the time, so I happily signed up to learn. I really liked the bowl I made in class, but didnโ€™t honestly know what to do with it when I brought it home. I decided to put it on my fireplace mantle and light it up with a small candle. The way it glowed was so beautiful it inspired me to make a lamp shade. A friend encouraged me to enter my lamp in the fair that year, and it earned first place at both the Columbia County and Oregon State Fairs.

Around the time I was learning pate de verre, Sky retired from his engineering management career in high tech and was looking for a new adventure. Sky is very creative and has always loved to do artwork. Most of his art involved painting, drawing, woodworking and playing guitar, but he ventured out to the studio one day and began to work on a pate de verre piece. Itโ€™s always wonderful to have a creative person to work with in the studio, but even better when itโ€™s your best friend and partner for over 40 years. This was the beginning of Sua Lana. We decided to focus our business on creating pate de verre lighting because we both love the way light shines through glass with this technique, and saw an opportunity to make beautiful lighting in a style we hadnโ€™t previously seen. Today weโ€™ve got table lamps and pendant lights in penthouse suites, yacht clubs, doctorโ€™s offices, and private homes, and weโ€™ve enjoyed making every piece. To Sky and I, the most gratifying part of creating each light is the positive energy weโ€™ve received from our customers. Weโ€™ve truly received as much love from our customers as weโ€™ve put into our artwork.

Featured Artist: Carlyne Lynch, Wilsonville, OR

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I grew up in the Industrial Ceramic Industry in California. My father developed clay slip and porcelain formulas for industrial use. Corning fell in love with his formula as did doll-makers. I learned to make glazes from glass and various mediums and took classes at Corning where I was not only the only kid, but I was also the only women. I am back to my original roots and opening a kiln again and seeing what comes out is like Christmas on a weekly basis. My only regret is that my father could see me now, he would be so proud!

I combine torch work, vitrigraph, glass powder, glass pieces, and glass paint to create 5-9 layer pieces. I still do some bead work but lately I have been making more elements to embed in glass. I have a vitrigraph kiln and create much of my own cane. A vitrigraph kiln is used for the process of heating glass in a small receptacle and allowing the glass to flow out of the bottom of a pot through the bottom of the kiln. Once the glass heats to molten, it can be pulled and manipulated or twisted into unique patterns. It is a great way to create interesting embellishments to incorporate into traditional glass fusing techniques. I am also one of the region’s few torch workers active in the Portland area.

For my fused work, I use several layered techniques and I am always surprised when the kill opens. Working with glass is fun and challenging and also allows me to harness my abundance of energy in a creative way. I do much custom work and if interested in classes or custom projects please contact me.

See more of Carlyne’s work in the Member’s Gallery

Featured Artist Terry Thomas, Woodland, Washington

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I did glass blowing and fusing during a vacation in Lincoln City, OR in 2016 (lived in Michigan at that time) and was hooked after that. After moving back โ€œhomeโ€ to Washington in 2018 I took more glass fusing classes through Bullseye Glass and Melt Glass Art Supply (Vancouver, WA). I started out with glass fusing but got โ€œbitโ€ by the glass on glass (GOG) mosaic technique after taking a class through Melt that Kory Dollar (Marvelous Mosaic Fine Art) taught.

I spent much of 2020 and 2021 doing GOG mosaics as it was perfect COVID-19 lock down activity that I could do from the comfort of home. In fall 2021 I took a leap to purchase a small kiln for my home studio and have concentrated on glass fusing since then. Shortly after that my wife and I decided to start a new business venture and created TLT Art LLC. We are still working out a business plan and how we plan to market our art creations. As a Native American with the Grand Ronde Confederated Tribe, I was able to get certified to sell at the Spirit Mountain Casino gift shop so that is officially my first selling venue.

Glass is my art medium of choice because there are so many different forms and techniques that can be used to create art. The biggest challenge is understanding the science behind how glass changes in the firing process and how best to process within a kiln to get good results. I am always looking to learn from other artists to see how I can interpret and incorporate new techniques in my finished pieces.

New techniques that I have been exploring recently are vitrigraph and landscapes with depth. I joined the glass guild as an opportunity to get access to a larger community of glass artists and opportunities to learn from others. Shortly after joining the guild I was approached to volunteer to be on the board. I have served on other non-profit organizationsโ€™ boards and held other volunteer positions in the past. I always enjoyed sharing my time with other dedicated people in furthering a good cause. You can read my message in the January newsletter to better understand the goals that I have set for 2022.

Terry Thomas is currently serving as the
president of our Pacific NW Glass Guild.

Featured Artist: Cheryl Chapman, La Pine, OR

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Hi, Iโ€™m Cheryl Chapman and my business is Silly Dog Art Glass. I have been working with glass since 1990 when I took a stained glass class at the local junior college. I have been making a living with glass pretty much the whole time, first working at a small studio designing and building windows, then building and installing windows for private clients and even working as an office manager of a glass supplier and glass beveler for many years.

Iโ€™ve been fusing for about 20 years and when I began enameling on glass about 15 years ago, I never looked back. I fell in love with the process of painting on glass to present my drawings in a way that is unique to me. I am mostly self-taught. I donโ€™t have any art schooling and have taken only a few glass classes โ€“ two semesters for stained glass at the junior college, one weekend of glass fusing with Gil Reynolds, and one several day workshop on glass enameling with Cappy Thompson. The rest I have figured out on my own with trial and error and research. When I began painting, I simply knew what I wanted the results to look like and then figured out how to get that look. I tried all kinds of shortcuts, but finally settled on methods that may take longer, but satisfy my aesthetic.

Fall Kick Off – Glass enamel

I do teach my reverse enameling techniques at workshops here and there as well as occasionally at my home studio in La Pine, OR. I like teaching the in-person workshops, but I also sell a video tutorial that gives you the basics of my process as well. Many people find that taking the workshop and having the video as a back up after the class works well for them to help remember all the steps and stages. Iโ€™m also always available to answer questions long after the class is done.

Iโ€™m always looking at new ideas for โ€œproductsโ€ to make and sell. I currently have my work in four different galleries/shops and find that in order to make money selling glass work I must have a good combination of accessibility (pricewise) and unique designs. So, I make several different types of items at different price points ranging from $15 to $500. And I frequently get bored making similar items over and over, so they tend to change and adapt over time. I have a few new ideas to work on this spring and am looking forward to getting to work on them.

Before I moved to Oregon, I lived in a small mountain community in southern California. That is where I joined an artistsโ€™ network that got me excited about being an actual artist and I forged friendships that will last a lifetime. Iโ€™m glad Iโ€™ve finally joined this glass guild and I hope I can meet many of you in person or virtually. I love seeing what other people are creating and hearing about how they got where they are today and what they are excited about doing in the future.

Bluebird View
Nuthatch and Tree
Fall Joy – glass enamel

Please feel free to reach out to me via social media โ€“ you can find me on Instagram and Facebook under Silly Dog Art Glass. Or through my website at SillyDogArtGlass.com.

Featured Artist: Sarah Miller, Creston, B.C.

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I came to the world of fused glass in the way that I suppose most of us did; I had been working with stained glass since the early 1990’s when I “discovered” glass that had been manipulated in a kiln. Until then, I hadn’t realized that was an option! I was living in rural British Columbia (I still am) and the internet was relatively new, but my fortuitous visit to a glass retailer in Idaho awakened me to an art form that has been my passion for over 10 years now.

Shortly after buying my first kiln (encouraged by my husband) I attended the Glass Expo in Las Vegas, where I took some introductory courses in order to learn the basics. From there, I did a lot of experimenting. There are no fusing shops near me, so I had to improvise with what I had on hand to try to bring forth the ideas bubbling in my brain. I’m grateful for that. I think if I could run to a glass shop every time I thought I needed a particular tool or supply, I wouldn’t have had to become creative/innovative with what was in my studio. Within all of that experimenting, I came up with some techniques that I put into the tutorials that I sell in my shop on Etsy https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/SarahMillerGlass I have a Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SarahMillerGlassTutorials related to the tutorials, which is full of tips and mini-tutorials. It has been very gratifying to be able to share in this way.

Before Covid, my husband and I would make the 9 hour drive down to Portland each fall. We would go to the Bullseye Resource Center, so I could stock up for the following year, and we’d also take part in the Run like Hell 5K. I miss that, and I miss Portland, and I wonder sometimes if I’ll ever get back down there. For now I’m ordering from Bullseye online, grateful that they ship into Canada. Having the tutorials and the Facebook group, and being part of the Glass Guild makes me feel connected to other fusers, and I’m grateful for that as well.

During this quiet time of Covid, I often find that I’m not drawn to working with glass. I’ve started working with textiles, making small art quilts using some of the same methods I use with glass. It’s quite amazing how similar quilting is to fusing, actually. That’s not to say that I haven’t been producing glass pieces.

I did quite a few pet portraits last year, just before Christmas. All of them were based on photos that were emailed to me by the person requesting the portrait. After working with the photos so intensely, I often felt like I knew the animal, which was really nice. I tried to capture the essence of the animal without just copying the photo. I mostly used just black powder, but every once in a while I added some color, as you see in this little one’s ears.

I so enjoyed creating the animal portraits that I decided to challenge myself by doing a person. My niece and her husband were separated by Covid, so I decided to do a portrait for her. I had intended to use only powder, as I did with the animals, but as I started on this I realized that dichro glass would be fabulous for the sunglasses, so I ran with that.

Of all the techniques I use and enjoy, I think the powdered evergreens is the one I’ll always keep coming back to. I have no idea how many pieces I’ve done using this technique, but I just find it so relaxing and satisfying. I can just do it without having to stress about anything. (This is one of the tutorials that I sell.)

Looking at these photos, which are some of my favorite pieces, I guess I’d say that I don’t have a particular style. The common thread running through all of them is that I’ve documented the creation of each one. I’ve been doing that pretty much since I started fusing. I find it really interesting to see how a piece looks during all of the stages of creation. That’s the sort of thing I like to share in the Facebook group.

I’m looking forward to a new year of creating, and to being inspired by your creations!
-Sarah Miller
www.sarahmillerglass.com